Broadcast News

Shortcut chooses Autodesk postproduction systems

Shortcut, a postproduction company based in Copenhagen, Denmark, has been beta testing Autodesk's Incinerator with Autodesk's Discreet Lustre digital colour grading system.
Shortcut purchased the latest version of Lustre - version 2.6. Lustre 2.6 is already shipping and delivers a host of new features, including additional conform and editorial capabilities.
Autodesk's Incinerator is expected to ship toward the end of 2005 and will be sold as a separate product. Designed to enhance the real-time performance of Lustre, Incinerator is an inline cluster of configurable processing units that connect to one or more Lustre stations, boosting system performance and interactivity during digital colour grading sessions.
"We were having a really hard time trying to find a solution that could match our stringent requirements but when we saw Lustre with Incinerator for the first time, we knew straight away that it was the system we were looking for," said Ivan Schmidt, Technical Director at Shortcut. "It's so much faster and more powerful compared to the other solutions on the market. It's also much more stable than competitive products; it's without doubt a far stronger system in every respect."
Shortcut has also invested in a new Discreet Flame visual effects system running on Tezro. Both systems were purchased through Autodesk authorised reseller, Kinovox. The facility's workflow now includes one Discreet Inferno and two Flame systems.
"We're familiar with Autodesk Media and Entertainment's products and believe that its background, expertise and proven reputation make it the best company to deliver digital colour correction systems. With Lustre technology being used for major feature films, we're very confident in our decision. We believe that Autodesk will continue to deliver the highest quality and best features to match our future needs," said Ivan.
Ivan cited integration as a key advantage to using Lustre: "We already have an Autodesk/Discreet workflow so the systems work very well together. We also have an ARRI Scanner and an ARRI Laser Recorder, which both integrate effortlessly with Lustre."
Shortcut is seeing an increasing demand for digital colour grading and Ivan believes it is the way forward for the future: "Using DI means you can avoid damaging the negative because you don't have to handle it. It also makes postproduction much more straightforward."
Shortcut has four in-house colourists and has been doing DI work for the past five years. It also provides scanning, grading, online and offline editing and film rerecording and restoration services.
Shortcut is the largest postproduction facility in Scandinavia and part of what is believed to be the oldest film studio in the world, Nordisk film, founded in 1906.
(GB)